Welsh Power SynCon — Earthing Design
4x Earthing Studies and Design for Gretna, Neilston, Rothienorman and Thurso
The challenge
The client had four EHV-connected sites that needed detailed earthing designs to support NESO’s stability pathfinder programme. All four sites were under tight time pressure and required full earthing designs for the new EHV yards, including safe management of high EPR contours without transferring unacceptable risk onto the 15 kV synchronous condenser machines and buildings.
What Aurora did
Aurora delivered the earthing design for four NESO Stability Pathfinder synchronous compensator sites for Welsh Power. Each site received a detailed CDEGS model to calculate EPR, touch and step voltages for local and transfer faults, followed by a Fall of Potential test after construction to verify the model. Transfer voltage and fault return path calculations were taken into PSCAD where simplified analytical methods did not give a defensible answer. The four sites were Gretna, Neilston, Rothienorman and Thurso.